Reasons to be optimistic ahead of game 7.

[ACF]

We came this far, even though almost every basketball "expert" counted us out. I don't see why we shouldn't win it all. It will be a matter of who wants it the most. I truly feel that with a second ring in sight, the chance of a "mini-dynasty" of sorts and a place in Celtic (and even NBA) history books, our C's will prevail. Come on, fellas. Make Red proud.

[Yakmanev]

I'd like to see the Celtics at least have someone in position to rebound and boxing out before we settle for a jump shot. I think that helps allot.

[marshall07]

I said in another thread that the C's would blow out the L's in game 5... score wise no, but we outplayed them in every facet of the game.

I think it will be closer in 7, but I'm extremely optimistic and think we'll be ahead for most of the game and pull it out running away. 96-84 Boston.  Why?

History on our side... 4-0 against the L's in game 7.  Plus a history of dominance over this team.  Luck is on our side. Why are their certain trends in life?  It's just the way the world works...  Boston owns LA.  Period.

Bounce back from every large loss this post-season...   a large loss is always a motivating factor, and for us, it's been like whipping a sleeping lion... we wake up and come out aggressive... game on.

game plan involves making the extra pass and letting the offense flow.  the stars understand that as they huddled on the bench in the 4th quarter.  expect game 4-5 like execution on offense.  KG, PP, RR and Rayray will all be on...

Law of averages:  It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for artest to have 2 good games in a row.  He was 5-10 in game one and through up donuts the rest of the series until last night.  With his new found confidence, expect him to jack it up on Thu, and I predict a 2-11 shooting barrage.  

Bench play:  Lakers bench played 500% beyond their capabilities.  As we tighten up our defense, expect us to win the bench war.  That should account for a 15pt swing in itself.  Nate got the bad game out of his system, and realistically, he can burn Farmar and Brown any night of the week.  

3pt shooting:  We are not a 21% 3pt shooting team.  more of these open looks will fall.  4 more go in and that's 12 points on the board.  Lakers are notoriously bad in leaving outside shooters open.  We had looks but didn't make.  Diff story next game.  That said, we won't shoot 33% next game.  The L's shot 33% in game 5.. did you expect they'd do the same last night?  of course not.  same thing in game 7.  tough defensive series, so I'd expect us to shoot around 44%.  we shoot that, and make our open layups... different game...

L's still not good:  blowout?  they shot 41% from the field and 31% from 3 land and scored under 90 pts.  WITHOUT PERKINS.  We cut the turnovers down, and make 10 more of our shots, we have this thing running away...

I'm not worried about perkins.  I think BBD and KG can handle the load.  Bynum's gimpyness cancels out perk.  Pau can't get around KG.  Expect a big game from BBD and for some spit to fly...

[Hoops]

I'd be VERY surprised if Perkins plays, given the nature of the injury. Bynum's issues may well negate that loss.

The bottom line is effort. Rebounding is effort and attention to detail. We have to have it, or we're going to lose Thursday night. That will have MUCH more of an impact on the game than Perkins.

CoachBo is right--Game 7, like every other game in the Finals, will be all about EFFORT.  For one game, we can overcome the loss of Perk and LA's homecourt advantage--if we come out with supreme effort, defend the perimeter, box out, and make all the 50/50 plays.

This team plays loves being the underdog and right now everyone, outside of hardcore Celtic fans, is assuming that Game 7 goes to the Lakers.  This creates pressure on the Lakers and motivation for the Celtics.

The blowout loss in Game 6 also creates momentum for Game 7, much like Game 1's loss created Game 2's win.  The Lakers are human, and the beatdown in Game 6 will cause some of them to let down in Game 7. 

Perk's injury, while debilitating for our defense and toughness, makes this team much harder to defend.  And even though we were completely outplayed in Game 6, the Lakers still didn't break 90.  The Celtics will come to play defensively on Thursday, but they'll only win if they're able to make shots.  Having Sheed and Baby in there will create more lanes for Rondo, and hopefully will minimize the scoring lulls that seem to hit us every game.  We'll still need to make shots, but Baby and Sheed are vastly superior to Perk when it comes to catching the ball, converting in traffic, hitting jump shots, and making the defense respect them.  This is all good news for our offense.

not to dump on the optimism here but to be fair, the lakers didn't break 90 because they had their scrubs in for a good chunk of the last quarter. 

Sure, but we were playing scrub defense in the 4th quarter too.

[Greenbean]

We will win game 7.

Perk will play the first 8 minutes of each half picking up a tech in each stint Perk will be on the bench in crutches and emotionally inspiring his guys to finish the job

[Kane3387]

The chances Perk plays and is effective are slim and none. The guy is already slow with very little lift when healthy. Sheed and Big Baby have to have big games, but not all time games. If together they combine for 25 and 15 I really like our chances. They are capable of doing this. For Sheed, in the eyes of the media and fans, this game probably determines whether his addition was a success or failure for the Celtics this year. If we win it's irrelevant but I think he has to perform well for us to win. He can give us:
       Good defense on Gasol/Odom/Bynum
       A three or two
       7-8 boards
       10-15 points
We get a game like this out of him I think we will take it. I also like the prospects of him playing more and spacing the floor more than Perk does, assuming he can make a couple shots and not play defense with his hands on the other end.

If Sheed plays well and we win he will be adored forever, but if he doesn't play well I think it's tough for us to win and with a loss comes no adoration. I have not been one who thinks Sheed is the difference between a title and failure but with Perk sidelined his importance has sky-rocketed. He was supposed to be KG insurance and now he is our Perk insurance.

Reasons to be optimistic are:

Sense of Urgency is more ours than the Lakers now. The team coming off a loss should always have more urgency then the team coming off a win in this one and done situation.

After the Lakers have beaten us at their home they have always let up and lost their following home game to us. Game 3 2008 La wins and loses Game 4; Game 1 2010 La wins and loses game 2. Hopefully the trend continues.

The Bench was non-existent - shouldn't be like that again bc they have too much pride.

Rondo will play better, he has too and knows it; otherwise he will see missed open jumpshots in his nightmares foe years to come. He will do whatever it takes to prevent that.

La has more players, not counting Fisher/Bryant, who don't perform well under pressure

For whatever reason we are a special road team that has beaten all the odds this year and it feels like winning this game is a culmination of our entire season and, to me, the way it's supposed to be.

Yet, most importantly though Boston has to realize this is likely their last game as a unit presently constructed. Thibs is gone, Doc is likely gone, and Ray might be to if we lose. If that's not motivation to win for one another then I don't know what is...

As of tomorrow there is no tomorrow. I am confident the CELTICS understand this. May the best team win, not the best player!

Kane
      

[celticinorlando]

because game 6 is over...and in this series there really hasnt been much carry over from game to game

[BringToughnessBack]

Reason number 1.

First Round
Game 4-Miami 101 vs Bos 82 followed by Game 5, Bos 96 vs Miami 86(ten point win)

Reason number 2

2nd Round

Game 3-Cleveland 124 vs Bos 95(monster 29 pt blowout)followed by Bos 97 vs Cle 87(10 point win after a few days of the sky is falling from media)

Reason number 3

3rd Round
Game 5, Orlando 113 vs Bos 92(big blowout) followed by Bos 96 vs Orl 84- We were treated to more sky is falling media fun on how the Celtics were like the Bruins…Yeah, right..I think not!

Reason number 4

Finals
 Game 6, Los 89 vs Bos 67(22 point blowout)…enjoy the sky is falling once again from the media- Kobe is God, Phil never loses..Artest is reborn, Pau is no longer the marshmallow man from Ghostbuster, Derek Fisher is worlds best PG, LA Fans are the best, Celtics are doomed,Cant win without Perkins, PP and KG are too old, Ray Ray cant shoot anymore, Doc is leaving, Thibs is leaving, Tony Parker says we suck no matter who wins or loses, but we will lose

Followed by Game 7, Celtics 110 vs Lakers 99…Celtics hoist banner 18 to the rafters

Reason Number 5

I forgot to wear my lucky road clothes in game six but will not make same mistake again

Reason Number 6

If everyone says we can’t, We will most certainly prove once again we can…as Doc would Say…Together, Together, Together..We will win this Series Together!

Reason Number 7

We know Artest will not score 15 again with a plus 26
We know Odom will not score 8 points again with a plus 14


Reason Number 8

Because the Celtics Fans deserve a week of complete Bliss with lots of excuses coming out of LA from the media and Fans and Players why they lost the biggest game at home.

[tenn_smoothie]

was game 6 last nite our worst performance in these playoffs ?

if you add in the Perk injury to that meltdown we witnessed, i'd say last nite trumps game 3 vs cleveland, game 5 vs orlando and certainly game 1 vs lakers earlier in this series.

so ............. we bounced back from those three games and won the next one - let's go get #18 tomorrow nite.

i'm awaiting a call this week from my dentist, who is trying to fit me into his schedule for a possible root canal - not sure which is gonna be more painful - going to the dentist this week or watching the Celtics gut out a win in game 7 thursday - hmmmmmmmm, six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Go Celts !!

[celticinorlando]

was game 6 last nite our worst performance in these playoffs ?

if you add in the Perk injury to that meltdown we witnessed, i'd say last nite trumps game 3 vs cleveland, game 5 vs orlando and certainly game 1 vs lakers earlier in this series.

so ............. we bounced back from those three games and won the next one - let's go get #18 tomorrow nite.

i'm awaiting a call this week from my dentist, who is trying to fit me into his schedule for a possible root canal - not sure which is gonna be more painful - going to the dentist this week or watching the Celtics gut out a win in game 7 thursday - hmmmmmmmm, six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Go Celts !!

yes...last night was the worst performance of the playoffs

[Prof. Clutch]

Reasons to be optimistic?  I got #1 right here...we have this guy on our side:




I wouldn't mess with him...

[celticinorlando]

in a perfect world scal would hit a 3 with 2 seconds left to win the game and the title

[JSD]

Well, this will be Scal's 4th NBA finals appearance. At least he's been there.

[mgent]

in a perfect world scal would hit a 3 with 2 seconds left to win the game and the title

That would be truly amazing.

[Prof. Clutch]

in a perfect world scal would hit a 3 with 2 seconds left to win the game and the title

Mike and Tommy were interviewing Scal last night and predicting the same thing, but kind of jokingly/mockingly, and Scal didn't really know how to respond.  It was very awkward and made for some even more fantastic unintentional comedy.  Haha.

My brother and I have had an ongoing joke for a few seasons now of impersonating Tommy giving Scal a pump up speech before he's about to go in to take a shot to win the game.  

"This is your moment Scal!"

We now say and apply it to any moment where someone needs to step up and do something big when there's little chance of it happening in reality.